Growing Lemons in Irvine

Lemonade presented us an opportunity to generate a large scale art installation for their new Irvine location. The art piece in question was earmarked to fill a large rotunda at 2 major cross roads in Irvine presenting a good opportunity to highlight the brand that is Lemonade. The goal was to create an image that is unmistakably Lemonade through both something both massive in scale as well as visual weight. The design process led us to a three dimensional interpretation of Lemonades logo which would fill the massive 25 foot tall rotunda space and project the Lemonade brand into the city of Irvine.

Maintaining an element of transparency was critical to the overall goal of the sculpture. This was achieved through both the design and make-up of the sculpture as well as the material and finish of the pieces. The sculpture itself is comprised of 9 rings; and 6 individual “seeds”, which both grow and shrink as they propagate the space. Each ring is generated from the same curvature yet the overall dimension, as well as the width, of each ring fluctuates throughout the sculpture. Each ring is split at strategic locations to alter the reading of the overall piece throughout the space as well as break up the massive visual weight and add an element of transparency. Following with the theme of transparency, the material that was to be ultimately chosen to fabricate the sculpture needed to be both lightweight as well as have an inherent transparency. The material eventually chosen was a fiberglass honeycomb panel. In order to preserve an element of the materials natural transparency, special consideration was given to adding a finish to each ring to not disrupt this quality as well as add an additional trait which is a glowing effect as the sculpture is illuminated.

The sculpture is hung from 44 ropes which are traditionally used in sailing applications. Each ring is held in place through custom grommets fabricated in our shop designed to maintain the proper spacing between each ring as well as the proper angle at which the sculpture hangs. The specific rope was chosen based on its substantial strength as well as it overall flexibility. With such as large number of parts coming together to create the sculpture it was important to ensure that it was well supported and that any rigging would have the ability to adapt to any variables presented to it.

In the end we were able to generate a new icon that we feel both highlights and accentuates the brand that is Lemonade.